Jan 29

Bill Hobbs

Dear Mr. Hobbs,

I promise to never say a word against you ever again if you can explain but three things to me.

1. What will a victory in the war in Iraq constitute? What will it look like? What will be the role of our troops in bringing it about?

2. What will a victory in the war on Terror look like? Seriously. How will we know when we’ve won?

3. Considering your personal wealth and your wide-spread readership and your influence in state and local politics, don’t you ever think it’s just a little funny when you go around bitching about the cultural elites? Who do you think you are?

Love,

Aunt B.

Still, a girl can hope.

19 thoughts on “Bill Hobbs”

  2. 1. What will a victory in the war in Iraq constitute? What will it look like? What will be the role of our troops in bringing it about?Victory will be when Iraq has a stable democratic government capable of policing its own borders and communities and preventing Iraq from becoming a terrorist training base. It will look like that. Our troops are helping by, A), killing bad guys, B) building schools and infrastructure, C) giving the Iraqi government time to mature, D) training Iraqi military forces to take over the military role.2. What will a victory in the war on Terror look like? Seriously. How will we know when we’ve won?Victory in the war on terror will be achieved when regimes like those in Iran and Syria no longer support global Islamist terror groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, and no state provides save-haven for groups like al Qaeda to train. It will also look like this: No Arab or Muslim state will be governed by a seventh-century Islamist terror-ocracy.3. Considering your personal wealth and your wide-spread readership and your influence in state and local politics, don’t you ever think it’s just a little funny when you go around bitching about the cultural elites? Who do you think you are?My personal wealth? I’m not wealthy. We live paycheck to paycheck just like most Americans do. My readership is small – around 1000 people per day, or less than one percent of The Tennessean’s readership, and a mere speck of sand compared to the ocean of liberalism spread by the national media and Hollywood. I’m certainly not part of the cultural elite.

  4. I thought the War on Terror included fighting all kinds of terror, domestic and foreign, not simply Islamic. What about neo-Naziism or even ec-terrorists? Bill Hobbs’ answer seems to indicate that this is really more of a religious war (even if the winner is secularism) than a demand for peace and security (even if only for Americans). Are we successfully policing our own borders? How can you demand that people "choose" democracy?

  5. Now, Jonathan, this is exactly why conservatives don’t often articulate what their goals are, because the second they do, we want to examine them. Surely, you can see how annoying this gets!And damn it, Bill, I wasn’t actually expecting that you’d come along and give a thoughtful answer. But you have and so I’ll keep my end of the deal.Okay, I really do appreciate you taking the time to answer thoughtfully. But, of course, your answer raises questions–like what do we do if Iraq is in a civil war? Or what if the most stable democratic government is one that’s hostile to us? And, more broadly, you’re aware of how pernicious the most fun parts of our culture are–the decadence, the sex, the uppity women–and how those ideas are transmitted through our cultural production (i.e. by those Hollywood "elites"). And clearly you’re aware of how angry it makes folks you don’t like that our culture seeps into all corners of the world and remakes it in our image. So, how can you stand opposed to the work that Hollywood does?Every day Hollywood exports a message around the world that America is a decadent, fun, free place where people have money and freedom and… most important to your goals… it can be bought into. You don’t have to come to America. Just watch our movies. Buy our crap. Listen to our music.And let it all seep in.As for your third point, like I said over at Carter’s, I was just goading you a little. But don’t be modest. Even if you only have 1,000 readers a day, we both know where those readers are sitting.If I only had one reader a day and it was, say, George Bush, I’d feel pretty damn influential, even with just that one reader.

  6. "And how much time, money, and people are you willing to give to achieve this utopian dream?"Depends, actually. If the alternative is living under sharia law one day, or dying from an Iranian nuke on a North Korean missile, the answer is "all."

  7. But, of course, your answer raises questions–like what do we do if Iraq is in a civil war? That’s right. Bill’s answer, the only conservative answer, ignores the possibility (to put it nicely) that the war is unwinable (again, to put it nicely).And then he suggests that if we don’t "win" this war, we will be "living under sharia law one day," etc. We’re going from ridiculous to, well, whatever is beyond ridiculous. But it does make you a good politician, Mr. Hobbs. Conservative politicians do love their scare tactics.

  9. But Bill, first of all, one nuclear bomb on one missile is going to suck big ole time, but it’s not going to kill us all and even North Korea realizes that launching a nuclear attack on us would mean the end of North Korea.And second, do you really believe that America would ever acquiesce to living under sharia law? I mean, really? Because, and I could be wrong, I believe they’d have to kill us all to conquer us (whoever ‘they’ might be). You saw how we came together after 9/11? Imagine if that had been an actual invasion.Again, I could be naive, but I just don’t believe that America is that delicate, that one bomb or an invasion would cause us to crumble. That, to me, seems so unlike our character.And maybe that’s a difference between the liberal perspective and your perspective that you don’t see. We look at America and we see the strongest nation in the world, and one that has, at its core, a beloved myth (in the sacred sense of the word, not in the bullshit sense) of ingenuity and strength and unstoppableness. We’re like a pit bull in that way.But like a pit bull, we’ll fight until we’re dead or you’re dead. What liberals, in general, want is for Americans in general to realize that there are ways to achieve our goals other than violence (though sometimes violence is necessary) and that, when we feel we have to be violent, we need to constantly check our impulses against our goals and against reality on the ground.It may be that there’s some enormous secret cabal of liberal elitists who want to see America fail, but for most of us liberals you’re going to find here in the center of the country, our goals are to make sure our troops have achievable goals that don’t require them to be in combat for decades and to bring them home safely. Those are our friends and relatives and church members and community members over there.We don’t forget that, ever.

  11. Half-ass has nothing to do with it. It’s aggression, not quality that is important to that distinction.Why’s it sad?

  12. You think what I said was aggressive? heh.Why’s it sad?What, you think you’re going to get me to dissect my own words? If you can’t see what’s sad in "We’re going from ridiculous to, well, whatever is beyond ridiculous" being particularly "good" politically, well….

  13. If I only had one reader a day and it was, say, George Bush, I’d feel pretty damn influential, even with just that one reader.If I only have one reader, I consider myself influential and pretty damn lucky, too.

  14. Oh come one, B. You feel all safe and cozy against Sharia, but feel that GWB is leading us all into a right wing christian theocracy in a handbasket.How is it that we freedom-loving ‘mericans would fight to the death against sharia, but not a return of the spanish inquisition?I know, "NOBODY EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION!!!"

  15. Exador, of course I believe that we freedom-loving ‘mericans would fight to the death against a right wing Christian theocracy if we all understood that that’s what Bush’s policies are leading us towards (though, of course, I don’t actually believe that he’s leading us to that. I think that the theocrats are hoping they can ride into power on Bush’s coat-tails, which is not quite the same thing).THAT’s why I keep talking about it. If I can get y’all to say ‘aha! So that’s what’s going on." then I know you’ll fight against it.

  19. I’m really intrigued by this notion of victory being a terror-free zone. Given that our government is torturing people, holding prisoners without due process for years, spying on citizens, and providing a safe-haven for terrorist groups like Operation Rescue to train, I really can’t see why we’re over there. I think we need to clean up our own democracy first, maybe hold elections that aren’t questionable.

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